Luna Moth in the Making

I came out to the porch yesterday afternoon to water my plants. The air was cool. The season, this season of fall has slipped up on me, caught me off guard. I thought it was still summer until one night last week I was putting on my wubs, that's what I call my pants with an elastic waste band, flip flops, loose fitting turtle neck: the clothes I wear that aren't quite pajamas but they aren't quite ready for primetime at the grocery store either. I was putting on my wubs because it was dark and wubs mean winding down for bedtime. 

I looked at the stove and it was only 7:30. When did it start getting dark so early? 

I'm not complaining. I'm like everybody I talk to. I'm downright thankful for this weather: the cool nights, the bearable days. I'm just still in the mental mode that thinks it must be 9 0'clock if it's dark.

But as I was saying, I was out on my porch when I happened to see this big lethargic creature on the ledge. At first I thought it was dead. It wasn't moving at all. I just had to poke at it. I picked up a little soft stem and barely touched it. It wriggled. The color, this color looked like that paint you can buy that reflects light, glow in the dark paint. The reason it looked so bright is that it had just shed its skin. I could tell both by the color and by the lack of energy the catepillar had. I went inside to get my camera and started taking pictures. 

That's when the little devil began to warm up, cool down and get moving. She moved to the edge of the porch and stuck her head out over the ledge.

Then she decided the best bet for her future was to fall head long the 3 feet to the ground. I was horrified! I thought the fall might hurt her. Instead, the fall seemed to energize her and put her in touch with her goal which was the large boxwood in my front yard. Itty bitty feet on a big fat body but the weight is well distributed and this girl moves so fast that it was almost impossible to get a picture that didn't blur. It was odd, I thought, that she really seemed to know without eyes, without a map, without ever being in my front yard before, without ever being in any body's front yard before, she knew exactly where she wanted to go.

Here she goes, up into the boxwood as fast as her round little body will take her– woman on a mission–I ran into the house to get Billy.

"You have to come see! It's a luna moth catepillar! I've never seen one this big and this close up!"

By the time Billy got outside–for some reason he wasn't as excited about the moth as I was–I couldn't find her. That's how fast she moved. Billy noted that it reminded him of the Aesop's fable about the turtle. I agreed that slow and steady is certainly an expeditious way to get where you're going. I'm sure the luna catepillar would agree.